Gearing up for the long haul

Friday

Jul 25, 2014 at 10:11 PM

Scotland County Tigers using every moment of time to prepare for the upcoming 2014 season.

Michael Selecky @mexicoledger.com news

MEMPHIS – A program that once had a tradition of dominant football has sputtered recently. The Scotland County Tigers have yet to escape the first round of the playoffs since before 2009. A program that, recently, churned out top rated talents in Brock Bondurant and Chris Jackson will hope that this year will be the year they break that unfortunate streak.

But first, the Tigers will need to knock the summer rust off and get ready for the season. With the MSHSAA-imposed “dead period” starting on Monday, Scotland County geared up to take advantage of their last week before the period and get a head start.

“We’re just trying to get a week of practice in before the ‘dead period,’” Scotland County coach Dan Burns said. “We’re just trying to install our base packages and get that all in and then have a week off. When we get back into practice we know all of it and we’re a week ahead.”

The Tigers will once again be one of the younger teams in the conference, but that doesn’t faze the coaching staff. They know the kind of athletes that they have waiting in the wings and they are already looking for ways to get them the ball.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids who are athletes, so we’re going to try and get them out in space and make big plays and go from there,” Burns said.

With an offense predicated on misdirection and options, the Tigers are looking for multiple ways to hurt a defense. With a conference as wide open as it potentially could be in years, the Tigers are looking to take advantage of the chaos.

But they know there will be one team in their conference that won’t be easy.

“I think Milan as always will be the top team that everybody is looking to knock off,” Burns said. “I think Putnam and Schuyler will be improved. This conference is improving and wide open with Milan at the top.”

Last season their rivals, Knox County, knocked the Tigers out of the first round of the playoffs in overtime despite Scotland sweeping the season series from the Eagles. This year they are looking for a little revenge and are hoping their defense is up to the task.

“Defensively, we’re working on tackling better, stopping the run a little better but tackling is the big key,” Scotland County defensive coordinator Ed Kosar said. “Tackle better, we’re just trying to change things up a little bit, but tackling is the big key right now and putting more pressure on the quarterback.”

Last year, opponents scored 24 points a game against Scotland County, but they allowed 30 or more points four times in their 10 games. With their focus on tackling and bringing down the opposing quarterback the Tigers will look to keep opponents off the scoreboard more consistently next season.

And consistency is something that they will strive for in all aspects of their game this season. In 2011, the Tigers closed out the regular season on a four-game winning streak before a first-round loss to Louisiana.

But since 2009, Scotland County has only stretched a winning streak to three games once.

And the score differential of the game that broke the streak has been an average of 30 points.

The confidence of the Tigers coaching staff is unwavering, believing that this year will be different if they can fix their consistency issue.

“I think we can compete with anybody, depending on which one of our teams shows up,” Burns said.

With a wide-open conference waiting for them, the Tigers could be poised to take that next step in getting back to playing Tiger football that they have been used to seeing.